SPC Interviews: Big John Games (Cube Creator 3D)

Cube Creator 3D is a game that is of great interest to many Nintendo platform owners. It's because Minecraft has skipped Nintendo's systems, and fans have been clamoring for any kind of substitute, so much so that the demo for the game will have crossed over 200,000 downloads by the conclusion of this upcoming weekend, according to Ken Patterson of Big John Games. The studio wishes to step in and provide a fitting and polished voxel-based game substitute with their soon-to-be-released Cube Creator 3D.

Last week, I was able to catch the Big John Games team to ask them about details surrounding Cube Creator 3D, its features, possible continued support of the game, how the team is trying to bring a fun voxel-based game to the 3DS, and information about future projects and prospects.

If you missed my interview in 2012 with Big John Games' Ken Patterson, talking about how the studio came into fruition among many other subjects, you can check that out here. Without further ado, let's get to this second Big John Games-focused interview!

Phil Stortzum (PS): Firstly, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for agreeing to this interview. It’s really appreciated. My first question regards what made your team decide to create Cube Creator 3D in the first place. Where did the desire come from?

Big John Games (BJG): When we first started developing Cube Creator 3D, there were no voxel type games available for the 3DS. We wanted to see if we could make something similar. There was a demand for it and we wanted to supply a quality product to fill the void.

PS: It’s no surprise that Cube Creator 3D is inspired by Minecraft. Is your team doing anything to distinguish your game so it isn’t just another Minecraft clone (and I use the word “clone” in a non-derogatory way)?

BJG: Minecraft got a lot right. We wanted to make sure we got the fundamentals of what made it what it was and then expand from there. We have added different types of enemies, they are similar in ways but also different. We have portals that will take you to different environments. Each environment is specific, Plains, Mountains, Snow Mountains, and Desert.

PS: What details can you provide about Cube Creator 3D different modes?

BJG: There is a Creative and Survival Mode. In Creative you pick one of the maps and all of the items are available to you. In Survival you start in one map and have the ability to transport to 3 others. You have to collect all of your materials, survive enemies, collect food, you can sleep at night. Very much what you might think of for a typical survival mode.

PS: How big of a playing area can players expect to see with Cube Creator 3D?

BJG: There will be four 192x192x95 worlds in a survival map, and you can choose one 192x192x95 map for creative. Each map has over 3,500,000 spots that can have a cube put in them.

PS: Minecraft allows for grand creations such as towns and castles. What limitations, if any, are there to what players can create in Cube Creator 3D?

BJG: Size would be the only one, Our world is 192x192. That can limit a mega build, but for the most part anything a player can imagine they can create.

PS: Is there any form of multiplayer or sharing of creations with other players?

BJG: Miiverse is the way you can share images of the creations at this point. We are looking into multiplayer as a future update.

PS: Then, your team has considered future downloadable content and/or support for Cube Creator 3D after its release?

BJG: We do plan on gathering feedback and releasing updates. Our hope is to continue supporting Cube Creator 3D. We hope to have open dialogue with our customers and make sure that they know that we hear them.

PS: Speaking of which, Cube Creator 3D does not have a firm release date yet. Do you have a release period in mind, or even more, an exact release date? Will the game be available for SuperPhillip Central’s non-North American readers any time soon?

BJG: We are very close to submitting the full version to lot check. Once Nintendo has approved the submission we will be able to lock in a release date.

PS: Shifting our attention away from Cube Creator 3D, I’d like to take this opportunity to ask you about your team’s future proposed projects. Do you have something already in the works as your next Nintendo 3DS project? Is there anything you can reveal about it today?

BJG: In production is “Lionel City Builder 3D: Rise of the Rails”. It’s a city building game that features trains. It has a pretty cool story that takes the player 50 years into the future and transportation has broken down due to neglect and fossil fuel shortages. Communities are isolated and decaying since current transportation cannot support survivable commerce. The idea of using trains to reestablish transportation and commerce, with your help, can save the day.

Our Coaster Creator 3D sandbox has been expanded and enhanced to make Lionel City Builder 3D: Rise of the Rails a great creative experience.

PS: This is purely a selfish question, but one of my favorite games from Big John Games was Kart Krashers on DSiWare. Has there been interest expressed by your team to return to that series, possibly for a Nintendo 3DS sequel?

BJG: We would love to create a sequel with multi player, tournaments, and more crashing chaos. It’s on the short list.

PS: What makes your team decide for its games to stick primarily to Nintendo platforms?

BJG: We love the Nintendo platforms. Nintendo is always coming up with cool player input and feedback systems. The eShop, if done properly, is a great place to sell games and earn some revenue for our studio. The eShop audience is receptive to games created by studios like ours. The online news portals, like yours, covers digitally published games. Consumers of the eShop can find out info on literally any game being sold on the eShop.

Nintendo continues to improve the digital buying experience. We look forward to growing with Nintendo as it increases its digital publishing platforms.

PS: In our first discussion together back in 2012 I asked about Wii U development for Big John Games. You responded that the team was going to start developing Wii U projects the following year. How is that progressing? Is there any information or screens you can share about this project?

BJG: We keep looking at Wii U projects. Right now it seems like our resources are better spent making 3DS games. That will change once the right game concept comes along.

PS: This leads me to my next question, how is developing for the Wii U? For ignorant folks like me who are console development illiterate, how much of a difference is there between developing for the Nintendo 3DS and the Wii U? Do they have any similarities?

BJG: We have not built anything on the Wii U yet. We have done Wii, DS, DSi and 3DS games. There is a similarity among the console dev tools that even the Wii U shares. Each system has dev tools that high light features of that particular platform.

We write our code in C++ and have found that much of our core code ports well between Nintendo systems.

Since each system has different graphics abilities. We try to bring out the maximum capability of each system in regards to graphics.

Also player input devices are different, so a lot of thought goes into how the player will interact with the game. Nintendo offers some really cool and unique user feedback experiences.

PS: Moving on from the future to the past, regarding your Nintendo 3DS games and DSiWare titles, have sales been kind your games? Which titles have seen the greatest success thus far?

BJG: We sold a lot of Thorium Wars on the DSi, our sequel on the 3DS has not done as well. Our Big Bass Arcade games have done well on all of the Nintendo platforms. Coaster Creator 3D has sold well on the 3DS here in North America, Europe and has sold really well in Japan. We are very honored to have some of our games selling in Japan.

Ohno Odyssey (Nintendo 3DS eShop)

Reviewers and players seemed to like Ohno Odyssey on the 3DS. But it still had trouble finding an audience on the eShop.. Maybe your readers can download the demo of Ohno Odyssey and give it a try. If they like the demo maybe they will get the full game. It’s a lot of fun to play. We lowered the price to $3.99 and did a content update to add 14 more puzzles, hopefully the demo, the lower price, and the new content will help Ohno find a wider group of players.

PS: Thank you very much for answering my questions. I know your answers will be interesting to a lot of people. Are there any parting words you’d like to say to those reading this interview?

BJG: Thank you for all you do when it comes to informing your readers about games on the Nintendo platforms.

We really do this because we have a passion for playing and creating games. I hope that translates to the players of our games. We really put the player first when we develop our games.

I hope your readers will check out Cube Creator 3D, Lionel City Builder 3D: Rise of the Rails and our other games on the 3DS. We love building the games and really love it when people play and enjoy games.

===

My thanks to Ken Patterson and the Big John Games team for taking time out of their busy schedule and final prep work for Cube Creator 3D to answer my questions. 

Ohno Odyssey (3DSWare) Review

We actually have two reviews planned for this evening. The first of which is a downloadable title from Big John Games, whose past work includes such games like Thorium Wars, Kart Krashers, and Coaster Creator 3D. Their newest game is Ohno Odyssey, which released last week on the Nintendo 3DS eShop. Here's our review.

"Oh, no" or "Oh, so good"?

Mobile devices and tablets have made it perfectly clear that folks prefer the majority of games on these platforms to be quick gaming fixes. Many Nintendo 3DS eShop game developers have taken this philosophy of making short but sweet gaming experiences on the go for Nintendo's darling handheld. Big John Games has such a title on their hands with their latest offering, Ohno Odyssey. Do these Ohno creatures deserve to be rescued?

The Ohno alien race travels on a spherical spaceship similar to a mini-Death Star-- well, without the pure evil and dark side of the Force. True to its name, an Ohno inadvertently knocks over a mug full of liquid, spilling it out onto a computer. This causes the ship to malfunction, sending 35 Ohno to the planet Earth below. It is your duty to guide each Ohno safely back to their escape pods.

Ohno Odyssey is a physics-based puzzle game. You're tasked in each level with putting down a predetermined number of objects to lead your Ohno to its escape pod. Easier said than done, as each level is made up of rails, straight, curved, diagonal, and windy. There's also hazards in the form of bombs to avoid.

There's a lot of trial-and-error to be found in Ohno Odyssey, and the game encourages you to experiment heavily. Thankfully, there is no consequence for having your Ohno fall off a given level (which it will do a lot). You simply select the return to editor option and have at it again. If at first you don't succeed and all that.

The numerous objects in the game to assist you vary by level. Some levels have a set number of ramps you can use, metal boxes that will stop your Ohno's momentum, bumpers that bounce your Ohno the opposite direction it was traveling, springs that allow your Ohno on your command to leap over chasms, and much more. Of course, it wouldn't be very challenging if every object was available to you right at the beginning. Ohno Odyssey slowly introduces new objects to the player, and limits what they have to utilize in each level.

Some of the fun comes in seeing the different ways you can go about completing later, more complicated levels that offer various paths. It would have been nice to have seen some type of scoring setup based on time taken to reach the escape pod and even some collectibles thrown in for replay value. As it stands, the 35 levels of Ohno Odyssey mean that once you beat them, you probably won't have much of a reason to return to them.

Ohno Odyssey isn't too particularly outstanding in its presentation. From the still-frame storyboard cutscene that sets the stage for the ensuing gameplay to the generic and repetitive music, to the sterile backgrounds, nothing about Ohno Odyssey is astounding. That's okay, however, as the game has the gameplay to back itself up. Just don't expect a feast for your eyes (Thanksgiving is tomorrow after all, so I had to use the word "feast" somewhere in this review...) and you won't find yourself disappointed.

Overall, Ohno Odyssey fills a nice hole in the Nintendo 3DS' online library of titles. Its physics are really well done, allowing some enjoyment tooling around in each level. It is a perfect game for bite-size gaming sessions, relaxing gaming times, or full-fledged marathon sessions. The game's brevity is a bit of a problem, and the presentation isn't the most amazing, but all in all Ohno Odyssey is a game you can say "oh, yes" to.

[SPC Says: 7.0/10]

Smash Bowling 3D (3DSWare) Review

In the past Phil had the chance to interview Ken Patterson of Big John Games, as part of SuperPhillip Central doing its part in highlighting indie developers, who we feel are most needed in today's gaming industry. Big John Games has a new title that released a couple of Thursday ago, Smash Bowling 3D for the Nintendo 3DS eShop. Here is Phil's review on that title.

Bare Bones Bowling

I remember as a kid heading down to the local bowling alley, putting on some size 5's and playing in the bumper bowling lanes. Heaven forbid I'd have a lane with gutters. Of course, much like my older self now, I still would prefer playing in the arcade in the back rather than bowl. That said, Big John Games (Kart Krashers, Thorium Wars) has returned with an all-new offering in their series of downloadable software for Nintendo's handhelds. This time they collectively head to the bowling alley with Smash Bowling 3D. Unlike the real thing, I had plenty of fun playing this virtual version of the sport.

The main attraction to Smash Bowling 3D is the Career Mode. In this mode, you choose an alley and a ball and bowl for ten frames. There is no competition to speak of-- it's just you versus the alley and those ten white pins. I would have liked to seen AI to face off against, or at least scores to try to beat-- something to give me a sense of progression rather than continuing to bowl frame after frame, hoping I'd unlock something. Instead, all you are doing is trying to unlock trophies as well as new alleys and balls for completing certain in-game objectives. These are things like getting your first career strike, having a final score of over 200 points, and so on.

In total, there are approximately twenty unique ball patterns to choose from, many of which can be customized in color only, and over a dozen alleys. Some alleys are more impressive than others, and there's even alleys based off several of Big John Games' past downloadable titles, such as Kart Crashers and Coaster Creator 3D. Unfortunately, the type of ball and alley you select is there only for presentation purposes, it does not affect how you bowl whatsoever.

Speaking of how you bowl, Smash Bowling 3D offers two control configurations, touch or buttons. Touch controls offer an interesting take on bowling, allowing you to set four sliders via the touch screen: Position, Power, Aim, and Spin, the latter being the angle of which your ball will move after being thrown. After selecting all four slider settings, you receive an overhead view of the alley and are tasked with tracing the line that adheres to your preconceived slider settings. The touch controls are fun to use, but oftentimes I would receive the notification that I was either too fast or too slow with my tracing. That would be fine if the game showed me the proper speed to trace the line. Smash Bowling 3D does not, however, do that.

The more newbie-friendly and accessible control option is the tried and true buttons kind. You position the ball via the directional pad and the other options (Power, Aim and Spin) are determined via meters, pressing the A button with great timing to get the desired settings. While this setup is much easier to use, it still requires some skill to master (and some luck as well, as any bowler will tell you!).

The presentation of Smash Bowling 3D fits in well with Big John Games' other offerings. The visuals don't hurt the eyes, but they also don't really have any kind of wow factor either. The 3D effect isn't very pronounced or impressive.  As for sound, the music is forgettable, yes, but thankfully it doesn't grate on the ears. There's little in the way of voice work, save for a "Good job" when picking up a spare.

Smash Bowling 3D is an adequate bowling game for Nintendo 3DS owners. The biggest shame here is that Big John Games had the potential to do so much more with it. In its state now, Smash Bowling 3D seems more like a tech demo than a full-fledged game. For a while, unlocking new alleys, balls and trophies is a good time, but that fun fades fast like a ten pin lead. Even the multiplayer for up to four friends and family members can only go so far. Smash Bowing 3D is nowhere near a gutter ball by any means, but it's also nowhere near a strike either.

[SPC Says: 6.0/10]

Coaster Creator 3D (3DSWare) Review

The day that caps off the work week presents the first review of March, the 397th review on SuperPhillip Central to be exact. Coaster Creator 3D on the Nintendo 3DS's eShop is a game developed in part by Big John Games. If you recall, we had an interview with them. Now, we are reviewing one of their first 3DS projects with this review of Coaster Creator 3D. Let's get to it.

Worth the price of admission

As a tween and then later a teenager, I grew up on and adored the RollerCoaster Tycoon franchise. I loved designing my own park, situating rides, and of course building my own roller coasters. Big John Games' Coaster Creator 3D focuses heavily on the latter, as the name of the game pretty much clarifies immediately. The game is the type of ride that won't make you queasy afterwards. In fact, it's quite good. Like a well designed roller coaster, let's lay out the groundwork as to why.

Jumping right into coasting creation is an arduous task, so the designers of the game have a Career mode, built up of twenty or so challenges, and hosted by famed fictitious and retired roller coaster designer Gill McGee. Each challenge introduces you to core concepts concerning how to create coasters. Each challenge also has its own limitations on what you can do and what tools you can use. You are never building a coaster from scratch in the early stages; You are merely tweaking preexisting designs. Some challenges only allow you to twist the track, while others only allow you to add loops or corkscrews.

Everyone raise your hands in the air 

like you just don't care.

Depending on the challenge, there are different objectives to complete. Many challenges require you to make it so not only the carts reach the end of the track, but the carts pass through all of the targets (performed by tweaking the track to lead the carts to said targets). Other challenges have it so your cart reaches the required speeds, doesn't jerk its riders around, or have it where you need to have your cart's riders rise from their seats on various hills. After your work is done, you can test your tinkered with ride out. Thankfully, the game does not punish you for failure. You can try as many times as you like to get it right without penalty.

Those yellow spheres are the targets

your track must lead the carts into.

While you can jump straight into Coaster Creator 3D's Sandbox mode right when you begin the game for the first time, completing challenges in Career mode is the means to unlock new track styles, cart styles, and much more. This may turn off some players who just want to start designing their own coasters freely with all of the options available to them.

Nonetheless, making a coaster is very easy. You have an overhead view, and you place the start of the ride (the loading area) on the map. Then you draw the desired path of your coaster, making sure it connects back to the ride's start to make a complete circuit. You only have a limited amount of distance a coaster can be. Once you are satisfied with the drawing of your coaster, you get transported to the 3D creator where you can edit your placed track, making loops, corkscrews, twists, etc. and create hills. You can also place objects, whether themed or generic, that add some eye candy to your coaster's surroundings. Speaking of eye candy, you can customize the colors and design of your coaster and carts to make them visually attractive rather than just fun to ride.

Different camera views offer differing

perspectives on each coaster you create.

Editing coasters takes some getting used to. You select pieces of the track to edit that specific part. The bottom screen shows the layout of the track (you shift perspectives with the directional pad) while the top screen shows a 3D version of the track. With the bottom screen you use the stylus to move the track around. Depending on the viewpoint, you are either moving track pieces left to right or up and down. Learning to use both perspectives is paramount to understanding how to create coasters well.

Have your collection of Miis

join you on your wild ride.

Coasters, finished and unfinished, can be saved at any time. Unfortunately, you have a pithy amount of characters you can use when naming a coaster, which is confusing to me. Regardless, you can ride your own designs with multiple camera angles (e.g. first-person perspective, multi-angle, etc.), and you can use the Circle Pad or the gyroscope of the 3DS to look around. Additionally, you can share your coaster designs via QR codes. (You can scan two SuperPhillip Central designs at the end of this review.)

Coaster Creator 3D is a wild ride made by people you know are ardent roller coaster enthusiasts. While there are some issues with the game (for one, I've had the game crash on me, resulting my Nintendo 3DS needing to auto-restart), the package as a whole is well done. Sure, the game has its ups and downs like many roller coasters do, but the final product is definitely worth the price of admission.

[SPC Says: 8.0/10]

Coaster Creator Designs

QR Codes (Scan with Nintendo 3DS)

Spot It! Mean Machines (DSiWare) Review

Our first review of November is a downloadable title for the DSiWare service. It also works on the Nintendo 3DS. If you are a fan of finding objects within a picture, then this first game I am reviewing this month will no doubt suit your fancy. It's Spot It! Mean Machines by Big John Games.

Seek and ye shall find.

As a kid in the early 90s I loved running to the mailbox and hoping that the latest issue of Highlights magazine came in the mail. It wasn't because I found enjoyment from reading the articles, seeing what new crafts I could create, or taking a look at what Goofus and Gallant were up to. No, I was most interested in finding that black and white hidden picture puzzle placed within the contents of every issue where objects were cleverly hidden within a picture and the reader had to find them all.

Along those lines, here comes Spot It! Mean Machines. It's very similar in concept to those old Highlights puzzles except it's more of a game. You get a puzzle full of objects and ambiance that can be scrolled through via the d-pad, stylus, or a combination of the two. The game starts by asking you to find a specific item. The catch is that you have a limited time to find it and tap it with the stylus before it is locked out and no longer available (A clock is shown next to each item on the top screen to indicate how long you have). As more objects are found and in a quick fashion to boot, the more points you earn.

The game ends when twenty objects have been found or locked, or when a certain number of items have been locked. This number depends entirely on which of the three difficulties you are playing on. Not only does the difficulty affect how many items can be locked total without getting a game over, but it also determines how much time you have to find a given object or item. Locked objects can be blown up by finding an object that has a bomb next to it on the top screen. Discovering the hiding place of that object will destroy one locked object on your list. It's very handy, especially in more arduous difficulties.

In the multiplayer mode (which offers play for up to four people) the number of objects that can be found is cut in half to ten. Players take turns finding ten items as fast as possible before passing the DS or 3DS onto the next person who then has to find the same ten items. The player with the most points at the conclusion of every player's turn wins.

There are ten puzzles total in Spot It! Mean Machines, and you have to unlock each one. This generally just forces you to play through a puzzle and complete it to unlock the next. There are a plethora of objects to seek out and find -- bats, bears, bunnies, batteries, saws, scissors, sheep, letters of the alphabet, wagons, wheels, crickets, frogs, toilets, eyes, tarantulas, cookies, carrots, moon rovers, among many others. Even though the order of objects and which ones you have to find are random each time you play a puzzle, the placement of the objects always remains the same. You can get to the point within the game where you can simply memorize the general area of where an object is and find it swiftly to get the most points. To an extent, it almost feels like cheating. This lowers the replay value of the game, as does the lack of any kind of online leaderboards to compare point scores with fellow Mean Machines players.

This title has a relatively simple presentation to it. Puzzles look like real life photos only with many more jaggies than expected. Sometimes objects can blend in or blur easily with the background, causing some confusion and frustration in trying to find them. The menus themselves are also relatively simple, but they're easy to navigate which is much more important than making someone drool at their sophistication. Every puzzle possesses the same musical theme. This can become tedious to the ears, but the piece of music is actually rather catchy.

Spot It! Mean Machines is a good buy considering the amount of content and options available to it. It won't be a game that players will invest dozens of hours into, but it will be one that is superb for those with pick-up-and-play sensibilities. That's because a given puzzle only lasts about five minutes, if even that. If you're looking for a game to make use of that eagle eye of yours, then it makes sense to try Spot It! Mean Machines.

[SuperPhillip Says: 7.0/10]

SuperPhillip Interviews: Ken Patterson (Big John Games)

Last Thursday I kicked off reviews for the month of October with a look at Kart Krashers, a DSiWare title by Big John Games. Speaking of which, I recently had the chance to speak with Ken Patterson, the founder of the studio. We talked about their latest game in Kart Krashers, Nintendo's game acceptance policy (how easy or hard it is to get a game accepted on their marketplace), how a developer receives a Wii U developer kit, and so much more.

SuperPhillip (SP): How did Big John Games come into fruition? When was it founded?

Ken Patterson (KP): I founded Big John Games after winding down my first studio "Window Painters" in 2001. While I was at the helm of Window Painters we did a lot of work for Disney Interactive. We developed the "Print Studio" creativity game series for Disney. We we were the developers of the critically acclaimed PC video game "Nightmare Ned", check out the funny video of it on You Tube.. At Window Painters we also developed two popular fishing game series, "Zebco 3D Fishing" and the "FLW Tournament" fishing series.

My focus for Big John Games was to get into console development, and move away from PC "work for hire" development. Our first console game was a reboot of "Trophy Bass" for the XBOX, that game turned out very well. We then had the opportunity to start developing for the DS and created "Spitfire Heroes" and "Plushees" for DS retail.

We noted some struggles at retail and our next two DS projects (Thorium Wars and Working Dawgs) had trouble finding retail partners so we kind of dipped our toe into DSiWare publishing with Thorium Wars. Thorium Wars did well as digital download for us so we made a commitment to DSiWare and WiiWare as our way to release games.

The BJG Team

SP: How does your studio distinguish itself from other downloadable game developers, especially those making games on the marketplaces (e.g. WiiWare, DSiWare, 3DS eShop) you folks do?

KP: That's a really good question. Having come from a history of retail game development, we try hard to put out a game that has retail value applied to it. We have a nice blend of people like myself with over 20 years experience in this industry, and young talented, passionate developers that bring in new ideas and excitement to our game development process. The team's are very tight and committed to building a game experience that will resonate with the player.

We build games that appeal to us as gamers. Hopefully the players of our games feel that when they play our games.

SP: Your latest game, Kart Krashers, recently released for DSiWare. Where did the inspiration to make the game a collecting-based game rather than a standard kart racer come from?

Kart Krashers (DSiWare)

KP: It came from an internal game that we had been working on. Basically it was a delivery style game like "Crazy Taxi" but the game never hit the excitement and fun threshold we wanted. So that project was put aside for awhile. I came back to it last summer, and I drove around and smashed into everything, and had a blast. I then realized that I did the opposite of the rules for the "Crazy Taxi" style game where you needed to avoid these objects. Thus the idea light came on.

We made a quick prototype of the hit objects for points game play, and we enjoyed it very much, it had the fun level we were looking for. So we went forward with full production of the game.

SP: How long did it take to develop Kart Krashers?

KP: It took nine months to develop.

SP: What are you hoping players experience with the game? Is there anything you wish to tell them?

KP: We hope the players experience a great sense of speed, and also develop strategies for collecting the stars to boost the multiplier and reach the highest point level possible. There are many ways to score points and approach high scores. We had fun with competitions on reaching high scores here at the studio.

SP: One of the criticisms in my review of Kart Krashers was the lack of an online leaderboard for friends to compare scores across the web. Was such a feature not included because it was simply not feasible for a studio of your size?

KP: Yep, online scoreboards would have been a great addition. There were some issues with that we just did not have time to deal with. You will see in future versions of Kart Krashers a much stronger online and multi player approach.

SP: What can you tell my readers about the game certification process for putting new games on Nintendo's various marketplaces? Does it take too long, or is it satisfactory in how long it takes? Has the experience improved since you started?

KP: We cut our teeth on the Lot Check process with the earlier retail games. So we already had a process and mindset to make sure our games will follow the Lot Check guidelines.

Thorium Wars (DSiWare)

Making the sure the game play is correct and the game does not crash is something our QA process is responsible for. Properly dealing with DSi specific issues is what Lot Check looks for. These are important to the user experience with the DSi so we take it seriously and follow the guidelines provided. Lot Check typically takes about 4 weeks for us, which we think is completely reasonable.

Over time our we have developed a code base that conforms to Lot Check guidelines so this helps. Lot Check is continually adding guidelines as users find issues that may effect there game play experience with the DSi system. This is great, we all want happy players.

SP: Do you think you get enough promotion from Nintendo on the company's various marketplaces currently?

KP: Of course not. I wish Nintendo would drop everything and just focus on only BJG's games. OK, so that is not going to happen.


Nintendo is working to promote all of the games it offers for downloads. There are certain games that get a little more promotion, that is because they offer something the the player that Nintendo values. Typically games that get a little extra promotion, offer what Nintendo thinks is a quality experience for its players. This is a good way to inspire developers to bring valuable experiences to its players.

This is a good thing. It raises the bar, so that we as developers work to make a quality experience and we may get a little extra promotion out of Nintendo.

Ultimately promotion of the game is the responsibility of the developer / digital publisher. You just can not stop at developing the game, you have to make an effort to let the players out there know your game is available. Blog sites like yours are very important in getting the word out. Yes we developers have to nurture and work with our marketing sides at times.

SP: You have on your homepage that you are a certified Nintendo 3DS game developer. Is your studio thinking of creating a game that is exclusive to the Nintendo 3DS's eShop?

KP: We are currently finishing our first 3DS game, Coaster Creator 3D. It is a really cool way to design, edit and ride roller coasters and ride them using the 3DS 3D. We use a spline based system for forming the coaster tracks. You use the stylus to pull and twist your track. We also have wizards for loops and twists. It's a very new way to create coaster and works extremely well on the 3DS.

SP: You are not currently listed as a developer for the Wii U, but are you currently in the process of attempting to be one? How does that process work (i.e. how does one become a developer for a new platform)?

KP: We will be developing Wii U products starting next year.

Studios can submit project concepts to Nintendo, and if Nintendo likes these concepts you can get access to Wii U dev kits. Nintendo will also seek out studio's that they have identified as having content that they would like to get onto there systems. It's about getting the most relevant content to the players that Nintendo will use as it's guide for seeding new console development.

We have some cool concepts for Wii U and will submit them early next year. In the mean time we have a few more DSiWare games we will be releasing and we will also be bringing more 3DS native games to the eShop.

SP: Is there anything else you would like to tell my readers?

KP: Thank you, for supporting Nintendo digital products. Nintendo digital stores are getting much better, and attracting more consumers. This makes for a vibrant marketplace which is exciting to us developer / publishers and the players.

I hope your readers will give Kart Krashers a try. We really worked hard to build a unique, fun, and entertaining game.

I firmly believe, that the most innovating products are coming out as Nintendo digital offerings.

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It was once again a pleasure to interview someone within the gaming industry, seeing the viewpoint of someone that I normally would not get to look at, and learning new things about a developer's design process among other neat tidbits. If you are interested in Kart Krashers and you own a Nintendo 3DS or DSi system, you can go onto the online store and pick up the game for $4.99. Regardless, I hope you enjoyed this interview, and I cannot thank Ken Patterson of Big John Games enough for his time.

Kart Krashers (DSiWare) Review

We are nearly halfway through the month of October, yet we have no reviews to show for it. That is going to change really soon. And by really soon, I mean now. The first review of the month comes from Big John Games' Kart Krashers for DSiWare (also available on the Nintendo eShop for 3DS). The game released late last month, so let's see if this kart game's kooky enough for my tastes.

Not Even Close to a Kart-astrophe.

The kart genre is no stranger to zany and colorful games. When you think of games with karts, you most likely think of races around wacky circuits a la Mario Kart or Diddy Kong Racing. The newest effort by Big John Games forgoes such a formula and creates its own unique DSiWare entry with Kart Krashers. With a price tag of five bucks, is Kart Krashers a party worth "krashing?"

Kart Krashers starts off by interjecting a loose plot into things to give players a feeling of motivation to engage in the game. It really isn't necessary as the title is worthy of playing on its own merits without the need of a story. All you need to know is there is a Kart Krashing competition that will award the winner with a myriad of money, and one of the participants wants a pony. There you go; the plot in a nutshell. The game introduces new characters at a consistent pace, even allowing you to play as five of them as the story grows, each with their own kart and attributes.

There are ten levels to be played within Kart Krashers, each with three events. Levels are opened up on the world map one at a time, and through collecting enough Golden Wheels, new levels are unlocked for play. Across the Kart Krashing competition, you will speed, bash, and "krash" through malls, Mayan temples, twilight hour cities, junkyards, and even the moon.

As I said, Kart Krashers does not do the typical racing experience that you might expect with a kart game. Instead, Kart Krashers is all about collecting, and to be more specific, collecting stars. Strewn about the various levels and events are multicolored stars, each worth a significant amount of points. As you collect stars, your score multiplier goes up. You need to keep moving in an agile manner or else the multiplier will begin to decrease and fall little by little. You can continue your multiplier by collecting another star, so it is not a lost cause once your multiplier begins descending; You can still get it back. Outside of collecting stars are rings that are worth a substantial amount of points, but they require a bit more skill and driving finesse to reach. There are also enemies that can be defeated that also deal out points.

Each event (three in each of the ten levels) has three Golden Wheels to attain, earned by scoring a set amount of points within a given event. Through gaining four Golden Wheels within a level, the next opens up for you to engage. I seldom found myself having a rough go of getting all three Golden Wheels in most of the events, as there are a generous amount of point opportunities to be found. Sure, an occasional event will trip you up, but for the majority of the game I had little problem. That is not to say the game is immensely easy. Your mileage will vary on how much of a breeze or how much of a challenge you have. Regardless, a level ends when all stars have been collected, time runs out, or your kart loses all of its health.

The levels themselves are pretty much nicely designed. Stars are generally laid out in a smart enough way where there is usually a right racing line to grab them for the most amount of points in the fastest available fashion. Levels have plenty of ramps and paths to drive across, as well as hazards to worry about. The Cityscape level, for instance, is occupied not only by your standard alien menace, but there are also UFOs that will pick you up and knock you aside, taking out part of your kart's health.

Losing health is not much of a problem early on because the hazards are not as plentiful as they are later in the game. And even if your wheels do take some damage, you can drive into a first-aid kit to restore some health. That is not the only type of power-up available in Kart Krashers. There are rockets that allow you to boost across chasms and to speed up steep slopes, there are shields that can temporarily defend you against hazards as well as enabling you to take out enemies and boulders, there are magnets that grab hard-to-reach stars, and there are brushes that increase the reach of your kart, allowing it to collect more items and defeat more enemies more easily.

As for the actual driving mechanics, Kart Krashers offers a relatively tight experience, though you'll seldom want to put the pedal to the metal all the time. Usually I found myself easing on and off the accelerator to be steadier in my driving to collect stars. With the R shoulder button, you can use the handbrake to peel around corners in a single speedy action, something I hardly had to utilize, but it is nice to have for more hardcore players.

Nonetheless, to go along with all the things that are right with Kart Krashers, there are some problems. For one, the physics of the game are not always perfect. You'll come to careen on an edge and no matter how hard you fight to stay on, you will always fall off; no matter if the majority of your kart is on solid ground or not. Then there is the problem with when your kart is upside down or on its side. It is incredibly frustrating trying to flip your car back on its wheels (attempted via pressing the Y button). This is especially aggravating when you are being locked on by missiles and are being attacked and you just flop around like a goldfish out of its fishbowl. One time it took a full fifteen seconds for my kart to actually regain its bearings and get back on its wheels. Unbelievable and immensely irritating.

On the presentation side, Kart Krashers shows that you do not need an overwhelming budget to make a competent and capable looking game. The visuals are quite good, especially for a DSiWare game, though darker areas look a bit muddy. The kart models look pleasing, too, as does the user interface of the game. Sound-wise, things are about as much as you could hope for. The music does not grate on the ears, and it can actually be catchy at times. Good luck hearing it clearly, however, when it is competing with the roar of your kart's engine 100% of the time. However, all is not well with the sound. One particular sound effect when you switch selections on the main menu is cringe-inducing in its badness.

Kart Krashers presents an atypical arcade kart game for any gamer on a budget. It won't last a significant amount of time -- perhaps a few hours to get all Golden Wheels and to obtain every achievement the game has to offer, but it is an entertaining title for the brief amount of time it can be played to full completion. Nonetheless, I can only help but think how online leaderboards for players across the globe or country to compete for the top scores on each level would have helped the longevity of the game. Along with that thought of what might have been, as well as the control issues and physics problems aside, Kart Krashers managed to exceed my expectations greatly. If you're looking for a relatively cheap and really engaging DSiWare game, introduce and acquaint yourself with Big John Games' Kart Krashers.

[SuperPhillip Says: 7.25/10]